Battle of Blanquefort

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Battle of Blanquefort
Part of the Hundred Years' War
Francais 5054, fol. 233v, Siege de Blanquefort (1453).jpg
Battle of Blanquefort, miniature from the Vigiles du roi Charles VII by Martial d'Auvergne, c. 1484
Date1 November 1450
Location
Result French victory
Belligerents
Royal Arms of England (1470-1471).svg Kingdom of England
Arms of Aquitaine and Guyenne.svg Duchy of Gascony
Arms of France (France Moderne).svg Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Gadifer Shorthose
Thomas Gassiot
Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret
John, Count of Penthièvre
Robin Pettilow
Strength
7,000–10,000 men 400–3,000 men
Casualties and losses
1,500–2,500 killed
1,200-2,500 captured
Unknown

The Battle of Blanquefort or La Male Journade took place on 1 November 1450 during the Hundred Years' war when a French army drew out Anglo-Gascon forces from Bordeaux in the English-controlled Duchy of Gascony. The Anglo-Gascon infantry suffered heavy losses, and the battle resulted in a French decisive victory. The battle was known locally as La Male Journade or in French Mauvaise Journée and marked the beginning of a campaign to drive the English from Gascony.

The Battle

At the first engagement, at a place called Jallepont, the first French lines slipped away on purpose and led the Anglo-Gascons in pursuit until they reached a cul-de-sac closed by the banks of the Jalle. It is a trap: Robin Petit-Loup’s archers were hidden in the surrounding woods and decimated the pursuers in nearly an hour of heavy fire. Meanwhile, Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret, lord of d'Orval, closed his lines with a pincer movement which took the English from the flanks.

The survivors, overcome by panic, fled towards Bordeaux. A French columnist, Jean Chartier, calls into question the cowardice of Gadifier Shartoise, the English mayor of Bordeaux, whom he accused of abandoning all his soldiers on foot to flee towards Bordeaux.

The French knights pursued the fugitives for several kilometers, and killed all those from whom no ransom could be expected. Only the nobles and the rich bourgeois escaped the massacre.

The magnitude of the losses sounds the death knell for the last hopes of the English to resist the French in southwestern France.

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